Order Forms for Military Service and Family History Records
This website explains which forms need to be used to order military service as well as other family history records (ship passenger arrival records, census records, Eastern Cherokee land application records, and land entry files) from the National Archives. In addition to information about what forms to use, this site also tells how to obtain forms and where to return them.

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a project of the National Park Service. It is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. By the end of 2000, the CWSS will contain 5.4 million soldier names from the National Archives. It will also include histories of over 4,000 Union and Confederate regiments, which will be linked to soldiers' names and battle histories. Additional information available will include all names of Civil War era burials in National Cemeteries, all Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, prisoner records of Union prisoners at Andersonville and Confederate prisoners at Fort McHenry, and links to the web pages of all National Park Service Civil War sites. The goal of the CWSS is to increase the American people's understanding of this decisive era in American history by making information about it widely accessible.

Veterans Headstones and Markers
If you find that one of your ancestors was a veteran, you may be able to order a headstone or marker for him free of charge from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This website provides information about the history of government-provided headstones and markers, rules for eligibility, instructions for ordering them (including a downloadable order form), and the types of headstones and markers that are available.

Immigration Records
This section of the National Archives website is a wealth of information about immigration records (also known as ship passenger arrival records). These records are valuable to genealogists because they may provide evidence of a person's arrival in the United States, as well as that of a foreign birthplace. The National Archives has immigration records for various ports for the years 1800-1959, and this site details exactly what records are available from them and where they may be found. An e-mail address is provided to obtain the proper form (NATF Form 81) to order paper copies of immigration records. The site also provides an excellent bibliography of sources to use to locate other passenger lists not available at the National Archives.

Naturalization Records
This essay from the National Archives website explains in detail the naturalization process in the United States--what records may be available and where they may be found. Depending on the time period and place involved, naturalization records may be at a county court, in a county or State archives, or at a National Archives regional records services facility. Indexes and naturalization records that are available on microfilm are listed, as well as helpful references for further information.

Geographic Names Information System
If a researcher is unsure about where his ancestor's place of residence was located, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) can help. The GNIS contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. By submitting a query about a selected geographic feature, one can obtain the Federally-recognized feature name, the feature type, the elevation, the estimated 1994 population of incorporated cities and towns, the state and county in which the feature is located, the latitute and longitude of the feature location, a list of USGS 7.5 minute topographic maps on which the feature is shown, and names other than the Federally-recognized name by which the feature may now be or have been known. For any feature selected, links to sites offering map viewers are provided to enable graphical display of the feature's location. A link to a site offering information about the watershed area in which the feature is located is also provided.

My History is America's History
This website is a millenium project of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is designed to encourage and help people explore their family history, discover their family's place in American history, and make their own contribution to history. The cornerstone of this site is a guidebook titled "Fifteen Things You Can Do To Save America's Stories." One can read it online, download it in PDF format, or order a print copy. The site has links to help people create a family tree and post it online; preserve photographs, letters, diaries, and other treasures; and view other resources for further exploration.

Digital Library Program Home Page
The Library of Virginia's Digital Library Program (DLP) is an internationally recognized effort to preserve, digitize, and provide access to significant archival and library collections. The DLP transfers rare and unique Virginia materials into an integrated, user-friendly electronic research environment. Since its inception in 1995, the Program has digitized more than 2.2 million original documents, photographs, and maps, and produced more than 80 fully-searchable databases, indexes, and electronic finding aids. This page is a gateway to the many records available online from the Library of Virginia, some of which are detailed below.

Land Office Patents and Grants
This is a digitized index of the original transfers of land from the Commonwealth of Virginia to individual landowners. To receive land, an individual paid a specified amount per acre and received a warrant which served as the authority by which surveyors could lay out the requested land. After the survey was completed, both the warrant and the survey, along with any supplemental papers, were returned to the Land Office, where after examination of the documents, the patent or grant was issued. The original was given to the landowner, and a copy was recorded in bound registers; it is these registers that form this series. The recorded document identifies the person(s) receiving the land, the county in which the land was located, the number of acres, the metes and bounds of the land and the date of issue. Adjacent land owners and physical features such as watercourses are often indicated.

A card index, from which the online card images on this site were scanned, was created by Library of Virginia staff and volunteers between 1918 and 1921. Information was transcribed from the bound land grant volumes, and the volume number is indicated on the card image. The cards contain the date of the grant, the county in which the land was located, the number of acres in the tract and a brief description of the property. The cards also note the book number and inclusive page numbers where the grant or patent was recorded. The file is arranged alphabetically by patentee or grantee. Queries can be made of this card index at this site. Once a land patent is located in the card index, the researcher can select a link to access the actual image of the record.

Index to Wills and Administrations Prior to 1800
This is an index for administrations, inventories, wills, and other recorded documents relating to the estates of individuals taken from the Will and Order Books for 50 Virginia cities and counties. The database indexes those documents for the period prior to and including 1800. The entries for Cumberland, Hanover, Lee, Nottoway, Surry, and York Counties and the city of Richmond extend beyond 1800. Please note that the documents referenced in the database entries are not available online. The database entries reflect the earlier work of Torrence's Virginia Wills and Administrations, 1632-1800: An Index of Wills Recorded in Local Courts of Virginia, first published in 1931. The database supplements this work by providing the location of the documents and by correcting errors where found. There are also entries for wills not originally listed by Torrence. These documents are not located in county records, but rather are found in other sources, and they include wills from a number of Virginia counties for which official records no longer exist. Each database record includes the name of the deceased, the county or city, the type of document, the date the document was recorded, and references to the source in which the recorded document can be found. For most records, the Library of Virginia's microfilm reel number for each document is also indicated.
Click here for a complete list of cities and counties indexed, along with the dates covered for each.
Click here for tips on searching this database.

Death Records Indexing Project, 1853-1896
The Virginia General Assembly on April 11, 1853, passed a law requiring the systematic statewide recording of births and deaths. The law went into effect on July 1,1853, and continued until 1896, when an economy-conscious legislature repealed the recording provisions. Information found on death registers changed little between 1853 and 1896. Death registers contain the name of the deceased; the race and sex; the date and place of death; notations regarding slaves and the names of slave owners; name of the disease or cause of death; age at death (years, months and days); place of birth; occupation; marital status; name of parents of the deceased; name of person giving the information; and description of the informant (whether a physician, consort, head of the family or friend). It is not unusual to find information missing from the records. Only the month appears for the date of death in some instances. The names of parents of the deceased are frequently omitted or unreliable since the person giving the information may not have known the names. Causes of death frequently are not known.
The Death Records Indexing Project (DRIP) is sponsored by the Virginia Genealogical Society. Each index entry provides the name of the deceased, the date of death, information about slaves and slave owners if present, and the year and page number of the register where the death is recorded. The online database is fully keyword searchable and currently contains almost 32,000 entries. It is a work still in progress.
Click here for a complete list of cities and counties indexed thus far, along with the dates covered for each.
Click here for tips on searching this database.
NOTE: Not all deaths were recorded during the period 1853-1896.
NOTE: the Library of Virginia does not have death records for the period 1896-1912.

Military History
This page is a gateway to several kinds of indexes and records relating to military history in Virginia, including Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants and Pensions, a searchable database that is an Index to the War of 1812, and a Confederate Pension Rolls, Veterans, and Widows Database.

Wood-Boye County Maps (1821)
Governor Wilson C. Nicholas contracted with John Wood in 1816 to carry out surveys of Virginia's counties and to prepare a map of the state, to be deposited in the office of the secretary of the Board of Public Works, to be "at all times open to the access of the Executive, or of any member of the General Assembly." One copy was to go to the Clerk of the Court,"to be by him carefully preserved for the use of his county." (29 Va. Acts 1816-1817) This series of maps includes what appear to be preliminary maps as well as the completed, official county maps. When Wood died in 1822, Herman Boye completed the project and the state maps were published in 1827. This site contains maps for all of the counties in Virginia circa 1821, including counties now in West Virginia. The counties are listed in alphabetical order. The maps can be enlarged by clicking on them, and they contain such details as creek names, names and locations of mills and taverns, and some individual houses.

Services Available
This page gives an overview of the services, references, and records available at the West Virginia Archives. It also outlines their policies for interlibrary loan and research requests, as well as their fee schedule.

West Virginia Civil War Medals
In 1866, the state of West Virginia authorized the minting of over 26,000 medals to honor its Union Civil War soldiers. Today, over 4,000 medals remain unclaimed. This site gives a brief history of these medals, a list of soldiers for whom medals remain unclaimed, instructions for how to apply for one, and a downloadable claim application form.

West Virginia Union Militia
During the Civil War, many soldiers in what is now West Virginia started out in the original Virginia State Militia units, which had been functioning since the colonial period. While most secessionists joined regular Confederate regiments, many Union men stayed with the county militia regiments, which were then dubbed "Home Guards" or "Scouts". These men were useful in guarding rail lines and as local forces fighting Confederate guerillas. Many of the men later joined regular Union regiments. This site is a work in progress, and it provides a searchable database for soldiers who were in the Union militia. So far, muster rolls for 32 counties have been entered into the database.

Guide to County Court Records on Microfilm
This site provides links to all West Virginia counties, which are listed in alphabetical order. Clicking on the link for a particular county will produce a list of the microfilm holdings of county court records for that county that are available at the West Virginia State Archives.

Genealogy Surname Exchange
The Surname Exchange is a list of West Virginia surnames and researchers that has been compiled by the State Archives since 1987. More than 1,200 researchers from forty-seven states and seven countries currently participate in the exchange, which is designed to allow genealogists to contact others who are conducting research on identical surnames. The Surname Exchange is searchable from this site, and there are also instructions for submitting additional names.

This web page was created by Susan Arnold as part of the course requirements for CLIS J734 at the University of South Carolina, Fall, 2000. Comments, questions, or suggestions are welcome via e-mail.